The Dresden Files: Ghost Story by: Jim Butcher

 

My review of Changes was intentionally short.  It was a brilliant book, but one that I perhaps didn’t have enough time to really get my thoughts out on why it works.  That may be for the best since its follow up novel, Ghost Story, is an intense character examination of the fallout from the end of that novel.  Harry Dresden is dead, but the forces that be have pulled him from the afterlife for one final task.  He has to solve his own murder.  This is Jim Butcher’s one last good old fashioned supernatural murder mystery before the series finishes shifting focus away from that genre.  It’s genuinely sad to see it go, but Butcher knows just how to escalate the mystery with so many twists and turns built into the narrative to give the reader one last bow.  Ghost Story opens with this excellent musing from Harry as he tries to come to terms with his death and the fact that he is going to be sent back, seemingly immediately after his death.  To help him with this is Karrin Murphy’s father who is a fascinating look at the man that made Murphy.  I cannot tell if Butcher is intentionally using Jack Murphy to explore the trauma of Murphy, as when we see her in the novel she is hardened from Harry’s death as a capstone.  Jack does seem to care about his daughter but there is a final discussion before Harry goes back to Chicago establishing this respect and pride in his daughter.  Harry is also immediately skeptical of his situation as he already knows what can happen with spirits who go back to Earth, Dead Beat and White Night are not forgotten (Dead Beat in particular as we deal with some of the lingering fallout of the Corpsetaker getting away in that one).

 

One the narrative gets back to Chicago, Butcher has pushed Harry to his lowest point.  As a shade, he is unable to access his magic and in typical ghost fashion cannot be seen, heard, or touched.  Butcher doesn’t make him helpless, he still has his wits about him after all, but Ghost Story is one final journey of self-discovery.  The book ends with Harry back alive, something that really isn’t a spoiler when you have four currently published sequels (and several planned others), but Harry has to find himself and stick with himself if he is to survive the road ahead.  The ending of Changes essentially lost him to Death.  There is a point about 2/3 of the way through Ghost Story where Lea appears and Harry tells her a story in exchange for three questions, through this he discovers he already knew his killer.  The reveal of the killer is masterfully done and this beautiful parallel to Harry finding himself, stated in the final chapter when he is alive and in someone’s very particular care.  It’s something that Butcher hints and foreshadows throughout the book which is really the only reason that the reveal works.  There is plenty of misdirect for who it could be and several suspects, both human and supernatural.  The story he tells Lea is also vitally important, it is one of his past and how he ran away from his former tutor Justin DuMorne.  Lea already knows what happened when he stumbled across her, but there was a significant period of time in between these events.

 

This is where Butcher takes the book down a cosmic horror route.  He Who Walks Behind, an entity of great power has been behind Harry for the very beginning and has plans.  It is, in essence a thing that sparked Harry’s power and morality, it has been moving things behind the scenes and is still out there, walking and waiting.  It is perhaps the best single scene in anything in The Dresden Files.  This is also the novel that has Harry really examine what he does to other people.  Molly Carpenter has been on a downward spiral, not dealing with her grief in any healthy way.  She has been using her power without guidance and has fallen under the influence of the Sidhe, specifically Lea at Harry’s orders, and this rule of Chicago through fear is slowly weakening and killing her.  Much of Ghost Story is dealing with this as well, getting Molly to an adult who can care for herself.  The same for Murphy and Butters and everyone Harry has been touching in the last twelve books.  This is a book of closure because the series is past a point of no return.  It’s nearly perfect.  9/10.